Thursday, September 04, 2008

"Swingtown" Creator's New Bisexual Drama

"Swingtown" creator Mike Kelley has just signed a new deal with CBS/Paramount to develop a new one-hour drama for Showtime titled "BiCoastal," about a man who lives with a wife and children in L.A. and falls in love with a man in New York. What will happen to "Swingtown," though?

CBS' adult drama which got off to a great start on Thursday nights in June, but ended up losing quite a bit of ratings muscle the following month, is about to end its 13-episode run tomorrow night.

CBS has yet to make a decision whether they will renew the series for a second season (it could again air in the summer when ratings expectations are more modest) or switch to sister network Showtime, known for its daring programming, which many thought would have been a more appropriate home for "Swingtown" in the first place.

The light erotic drama about 1970s partner-swapping couples in suburban Chicago caused outrage among conservative watchdogs, who demanded that CBS take the series off air and then salivated with glee over its dwindling ratings.

The CBS management is however said to really like and support the drama, and should a decision be made that it ends its run on CBS, a deal may be worked out to take the series to a cable network.

As for "BiCoastal," Kelley promised to give the series a "harder edge" and a "heightened sense of drama," or in other words - the producers will not be required to conform to uptight broadcast network standards, as they have on "Swingtown."

Should "Swingtown" migrate to Showtime, it will be great to finally see the full potential of the series as it continues to explore sexuality of its characters, cable TV style.

2 Comments:

Either way, I hope they'd renew it! I'm okay with the current state of the show but sure, it would be nice to see it on Showtime. There they could flesh out the characters more and just go for it. Also there is so much subtext going on with the women in this show so I'd like to see more on that front.